Digital workflow from a pro

[hacksawbob]

I went on a two day course with Lovegrove consulting and thought I would share with you the basic workflow for a high volume operation involved mainly in wedding photography. This is not maybe suitable for us low volume shooters (ie less than 500 shots in a day) but it may give you an insight into how one of the pro outfits do it.

Shoot the wedding in SRGB! (better for skin tones apparantly, they were all 5d shooters by the way seems to be th ee de facto wedding camera)

Transfer RAW files from card/s to External hard disk conected via Firewire 800

Import all the files into a catalog in LR but leave the actual raw files on the external drive.

select your best shots by flagging them in LR

rename the files you want to keep with the clients name and a number by selecting all the flagged pictures.

copy the renamed files from the external drive to a local hard disk, either leaving the unwanted ones on the external drive or copying them to an "unwanted folder on the local disk if space permits.

Edit the raw files in lightroom for global colour/vignette/mono conversions etc

Export the LR edited files in uncompressed TIFF 16 bit if significant manipulation required in PS or 8 bit if minimal adjustments interestingly they chose this stage to go from SRGB to Adobe RGB, which puzzled me somewhat but they said that that is what they have found to suit their style/skintones etc.

do healing cloning cosmetic retouching etc in PS

they saved the images for the printers as highest quality JPGs applying any sharpening at this stage. they also had some adjustments based on test patterns that they had sent to each commercial printer they used ie they found one printing firm darkened them %16 so they boosted the dark point in curves to compensate for it.

[piticu]

Interesting to know that. I think that everybody has a more or less the same workflow suited to his/hers taste. IE, for me it makes sense to do the downloading/renaming/applying metadata/backing up somewhere else, all of that in the same step, completely automatic. But again, you have to go for what fits your purpose/style/taste better

[Ballu]

[patrickh]

Ballu
To my eye the RAW to jpg wins hands down - more detail, better contrast and more realistic colors.


patrickh

[Orio]

It is possible to obtain different colours from incamera jpg by choosing a different profile or making your own.
Having that said, of course RAW is the way to go.

[Rob Leslie]

I really think this part is useful !!!

'Shoot the wedding in SRGB! '

'Transfer RAW files from card/s'

‘Go from SRGB to Adobe RGB, which puzzled me somewhat’
Yes puzzled me as well.
How can you go from a lower info colour space to a higher one and see any advantage, or difference? The other way round yes.

Sounds like a great course!

[piticu]

Till now, the best source i've found on this subject is Bettina & Uwe Steinmueller's Digital Photography Workflow Handbook, even outdated a little bit it worths every penny. Also a good read is The DAM Book.

[LucisPictor]

After a while everybody find his own workflow.

I shoot in RAW + medium JPG. The JPGs for quick access on any computer and the RAW for serious PP.

Then I mostly use ACR, sometimes DPP for RAW processing ans Photoshop to post process.

[Ballu]

[Rob Leslie]

The point was 'Shoot the wedding in SRGB, then download the RAW files'.

RAW does not need any camera colour settings to be made. All such settings are controlled in the RAW converter.

If your 'Default' RAW coversion is in AdobeRGB then the fact is the camera setting of SRGB is ignored. So it is a bit of nonsense, even more so if your working profile in Photoshop is Abobe RGB and why would anybody work in a lower profile unless they were only ever posting to the net or having prints made on a Fuji lab machine?

I work in Photoshop with Abobe RGB and print in Abobe RGB. I convert to SRGB for web posting and use Photoshop 'Save for web'
I sometimes switch to Pro Colour colour space in the RAW converter because it does give more control over colours and highlights. My PS is set to convert the file to Abobe as it opens in PS.
The advatages of doing a conversion in an other profile are not lost as long as you have PS colour preferences set right.

I only ever shoot RAW
I have used RAW almost exclusively since 2003 when I bought a Canon G3. The G3 was a bit slow and memory wasn’t as cheap as it is today but shooting RAW was always worthwhile. About the only times I have shot JPEG I have regretted it as any good shot is 10 times as good with your own adjustments rather than what the camera ‘Intelligence’ thinks it should be.

Best on-line write ups about using Colour profiles, RAW, conversion etc etc are to be found at the Luminous Landscape site.
They also do a very good six and a half hour download on the subject 'Camera to Print'

[poilu]

I don't shot in SRGB, I prefer raw film
I import all files in a catalog leaving the actual raw on negatives
I use 'save for web' to convert for internet
when I want b&w, I just put a b&w film
if I want different colors, I use different film

[Rob Leslie]

[piticu]

[Rob Leslie]

[piticu]